But why Shiver Entertainment? Of all the talented teams in the entire industry, what was it about this Florida-based company that piqued Nintendo’s interest enough to bring them into the first-party circle? Let’s look.
Shiver Entertainment – A Brief History
Founded at the very end of 2012. Trembling is described as “a boutique game developer based in warm and sunny Miami, Florida. Our small team consists of very talented individuals who enjoy working together to make great games.”
From Shiver website:
Our goal is to create the best games in the world and have fun while we’re at it. Part of the appeal of our boutique-sized studio is that you work on many different aspects of the game – blending your interests with the needs of the project. You won’t be a cog in the wheel here, hoping to work on the fun areas of the game – you’ll be doing it from day one, working alongside some of the most talented people in the industry.
Started by John Schappert, Jason Andersen (the two co-founders of Tiburon Entertainment), and Jon Osvald (who was Zynga’s SVP of Games and oversaw Villas games) with investment from NexonInitially focused on mobile, free-to-play gaming, Shiver has since shifted to “console (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch) and PC development for contract work on high-profile titles and original IP.”
Mobile RTS Beasts vs Robots it was announced in 2015, although we struggled to find evidence for it later a handful of videos and some dead links. From what we’ve learned, it may never actually have launched. In any case, Shiver seems to have turned away from mobile development and towards console development, channeling its technical knowledge and experience into port work in partnership with other studios, notably Warner Bros.
In 2021, Embracer Group took over the studio under Saber Interactive, until Saber itself discontinued Embraced in March 2024, after which Shiver remained in Embracer’s portfolio until Nintendo acquired it.
Shiver Entertainment – Gameography
So what games has Shiver worked on that have definitely launched? Here’s a rundown of all the games Shiver has Switch port support and credits for:
Okay, there are some big names in there, but a flashy resume is unlikely to get Nintendo’s attention, even with the porting expertise on display. Mortal Kombat 11 was good, and apparently Hogwarts is doing great on Switch, but Mortal Kombat 1? It’s pretty nasty on a Nintendo system.
Maybe Warner Bros. gave Shiver the impossible task of getting the game to Switch and running in any state at all is a small miracle. Regardless, Nintendo needs to see something beyond the rush hour. Only after many years of close and exclusive partnership, Canada’s Next Level Games (Luigi’s Mansion 3, Mario Strikers: Battle League) became the first studio in 2021. SRD has been a Nintendo partner for almost 40 years before they finally became the main branch in 2022, because the arrangement they had worked well. What makes Shiver worth getting out of the blue?
So why is Nintendo interested in Shiver?
The CEO of Shiver Entertainment, John Schappert, is an industry veteran who has worked for some of the biggest companies in the business. After working at Visual Concepts in the early ’90s, the software developer co-founded Tiburon Entertainment in 1994 (‘tiburón’ is Spanish for shark, and ‘shiver’ is the common noun for toothed fish — if the fins in the Water logo didn’t tip you off connection) and worked closely with EA on games like Madden series.
EA acquired Tiburon in 1998, and in 2002 Scappert migrated to EA, eventually becoming Executive Vice President for a short period before moving to oversee Xbox Live at Microsoft Game Studios. He returned to EA as COO for nearly two years before leaving for Zynga in the same role. Since 2012, he has held some presidential positions, and since 2013, he has been the executive director of Shiver.
Why is all this relevant? Schappert is a serious person with industry skills and game development knowledge from both the trenches and the boardroom. Far from some popular indie startup, Shiver is run by someone who will prove convincingly professional and experienced to Nintendo’s senior executives.
Schappert also has more personal associations and connections with Nintendo. When DICE presented Satoru Iwata with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award, Schappert presented the award (to Reggie Fils-Aimé) and talked about the generosity of the former president of Nintendo. “Mr. Iwata left an indelible mark on the industry. He made gaming bigger and better,” He said.
“I friendship, admiration and respect for Mr. Iwata is so great. He was no ordinary video game director. He was a game maker, designer… His passion and dedication are sorely missed. So please, make every game count.”
Add in his company’s technical expertise with modest, if not dry, technology and his valuable contacts and connections with other studios throughout the industry, and the acquisition starts to make more sense.
And let’s not forget that this “will have only a minor effect on Nintendo’s results for this fiscal year.” A small studio in Florida is a relatively inexpensive purchase, especially compared to the enormous amounts other companies pay for huge studios and their IP. The Notice lists Shiver’s “equity stock” as “$10” (which would be a very good deal indeed) although the actual price will be the undisclosed debt Nintendo is taking on with the sale.
Nintendo has very full, very deep pockets, but they don’t stay full by spending willy-nilly. You can be sure that Nintendo got a good deal with this one.
Switch is the future
There’s also the potential here for Shiver to be deployed as a support team for third parties who need help porting their game to Nintendo’s platform. As you can see from its credits, the studio is no stranger to tapping into existing pipelines alongside other companies, and having a first-party team on hand to help with the technical nitty-gritty could ensure that the next Switch gets the third-party support it needs. It’s easy to say that Nintendo games sell Nintendo platforms — and that’s true — but the broad appeal of the current console has key players looking to take on the biggest titles on the go. With other portables like the Steam Deck now available, it makes sense to have a team dedicated to ensuring continued support for exciting non-Nintendo titles.
In its announcement, Nintendo broadly described its future intentions:
Shiver’s focus will remain the same, continuing to commission a port and develop software for multiple platforms including the Nintendo Switch.
The acquisition of Shiver Entertainment may have come as a surprise, but given the savvy of the developers and the kind of expertise Nintendo thinks will be valuable enough to bring in-house, it seems like a shrewd buy. According to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, all signs point to ‘Switch 2’ being an interactive update to the current system’s hybrid concept, continuing a similar path with third-party games still more than welcome on the upgraded platform. It’s not impossible that Shiver’s support team specialty will be used in first-party games as well, as the team certainly has talent that could be used on internal projects.
Regardless of the exact game plan, with Shiver as part of Nintendo, finding optimization solutions, alleviating mobile chipset bottlenecks, and porting games to the next platform should be much easier.
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